The aim of the study is to describe nurses' experiences of working with health promotion and prevention of cardiovascular diseases related to smoking in Indonesia.
A phenomenographic approach was used. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nurses in health care centers and hospitals in Yogyakarta. The interviews were analysed according to Alexandersson's model.
Three themes emerged from the analysis: Conceptions in relation to the patient and their family, conceptions in relation to the hospital and health care centers and conceptions in relation to the culture and policies. All nurses are working with health promotion and prevention of cardiovascular diseases related to smoking in one way or another. However, distinct guidelines and resources are missing. The nurses also mentioned the need of training in smoking cessation to better work with health promotion and prevention of cardiovascular diseases with a focus on smoking.
The difficulties rise from lack of resources in the health care facilities, the patients' lack of motivation and weak policies from the government. For the situation to be improved the nurses need guidelines, training and more time to work with health promotion and prevention.
What this study adds:
Nurses stated that guidelines are not available to work with health promotion and smoking cessation in Indonesia. Nurses in Indonesia state they need training or retraining regarding the subject to be able to give good and proper education in tobacco cessation for cardiovascular ill patients.
Smoking is considered a tradition in Indonesia and the environment is not supportive for the ones who want to quit. Even though, involving the family shows to be a successful method for smoking cessation.
The implications of this paper:
Provide training in smoking cessation and in communication for Indonesian nurses to feel more secure when motivating the patients to quit smoking.
Establish specific guidelines to help and support the nurses in their work with cardiovascular diseases related to smoking.
Involving family is a successful approach that nurses can use in their work with smoking cessation which other studies also indicated.